Royal Caribbean Brings On Ship Adventures to the Safety of Home

Royal Caribbean International and digital design and innovation agency, Firstborn, have partnered to deliver innovation and engaging experiences for kids and families at sea as part of the new Adventure Ocean experience. Until Royal Caribbean’s ships are sailing again, together they thought of ways to make the same on-ship adventure and imagination accessible to families. The launch of Royal Kids will do just that.

In just three weeks, Royal Caribbean and Firstborn identified and reconfigured four of the games and has made them accessible to kids, teens and families on iPhones and iPads. The games are all part of ‘The Treasure of Barnacle Briggs,’ which launched on Oasis of the Seas last year and Freedom of the Seas this year.

“We are always looking at ways to innovate. The amplification of our award winning Adventure Ocean program on Oasis, Freedom and all of the future newbuilds gave us a chance to seamlessly integrate cutting edge technology into the physical space and the experience. This interactive, family friendly quest creates an immersive experience using oversized touch screen technology and body (motion) tracking. Families visit each hub – playfully themed islands – and are tasked with completing different challenges to recover the hidden keys needed to open Barnacle Briggs’ treasure chest. 

Onboard, these games deliver hundreds of smiles per cruise. By moving our favourite ‘islands’ into an app, we are excited to bring those smiles home,” said Jared Finegold, senior manager emerging products and digital innovation

Games range from dogging a gigantic octopus to navigating a runaway mine cart to navigating a maze while outrunning a gigantic boulder. Each game has a unique 3D environment and characters, so kids are fully immersed in completing each of the challenges. 

“Taking desktop games and porting them to mobile had its challenges, but we were able to really push the capabilities of the modern devices and keep the integrity of the graphics and gameplay. Making adjustments to the mechanics of the games to better fit a mobile device was a really fun process and the games play great on mobile. We’re excited to get the app out and bring some smiles to kids who aren’t able to enjoy the games onboard right now,” said Drew Dahlman, technical director, Firstborn 

The mobile-friendly Treasure of Barnacle Briggs, an Interactive Quest is live in the ‘Royal Kids’ app, accessible on iPhones and iPads. Royal Games is available in the Apple App Store as a free download. 

Once Royal Caribbean ships resume sailing, guests are welcomed to play all games onboard in the newly amplified Adventure Ocean space.